[Cigarette smoking and the age of natural menopause in women in Poland]. / Palenie papierosów a wiek menopauzy naturalnej u kobiet w Polsce.

The empirical basis for this work has been the material obtained from cross-sectional studies carried out in the years 1998 to 2002, among women living in Poland. The material included data on 3793 women aged from 35 to 69 years. The women who participated in the research varied with regards to the age, education and socio-economic status. Menopausal status and median age at menopause was estimated with the use of retrospective and status-quo methods. It found out that the median age at natural menopause, estimated by probit analysis, was 50.33 years. The main aim of this work is to define whether and to what extent does smoking of cigarettes influence the age of natural menopause. Smoking of cigarettes increases the risk of earlier menopause (value of test F=138.8, p<0.0001). Non-smoking women experience menopause on average two years later than women who are habitual smokers. Also the number of cigarettes smoked every day differentiated the age of menopause, accelerating its occurrence in women who smoked more than five cigarettes per day (value of test F=50.81, p<0.0001).